I’m about to share with you the nine simple steps you can take to make a real difference in the look and function of any room in your home. It’s often a surprise to people how much of a difference they can make to the way they experience their home in very little time. Just by taking ‘stock’ of what they have, editing the things that don’t belong and doing a good cleaning you can effectively give your favorite space a ‘fresh’ look.

Step 1.
Remove everything and I mean everything from the room. Just place it all in the hall or another place in the house temporarily so that you can see the room free of all furniture and clutter. Once you have it down to four walls and the floor, you are ready to see the room in a new light (and you won’t be overwhelmed by the contents anymore).
Note: You can speed up this ‘emptying’ process if you recruit a couple of girlfriends or family members to help you out. (I find bribery works well).

Step 2.
Now it’s time to fire up the vacuum and the feather duster. Make sure you give it a thorough cleaning. Because the room is empty you’ll find this doesn’t take too long and you’ll be able to get into the corners easier. Your mom will be proud.
Note: This would be a good chance to take a wet dust rag and give the old baseboards a good once over (it’s amazing how much dirt and dust collects there).

Step 3.
Stand in the middle of your clean empty room and figure out where the focal point is. It may be a large picture window or a fireplace. It may even be an architectural detail (if you’re so lucky). If you do not see an obvious focal point, you may need to introduce one into the space. Go back into your hallway of stuff and find a picture that you love or a mirror or another piece of wall art that you can place in the room to draw your eye and create your new focal point. This step is important because it will act as the guide for your furniture placement.

Step 4.
You are now going to build your room around the focal point you are using. If you are redoing a living room, you will want to place your seating area in a position where you can view the focal point easily. If you are doing a bedroom, then usually your bed should be placed directly below this feature. In some cases the headboard of the bed is the focal point of a room so this step can be skipped but in this case, remember to place the bed in the center of a wall wherever possible. Always keep ‘function’ in mind when arranging your main pieces of furniture and don’t block off traffic areas (unless you like bumping into the sofa).

Step 5.
With your main furniture pieces in place you can now add any supplemental pieces. Bring in side tables, end tables, coffee tables, floor lamps, bookcases or other secondary furniture. When you place these pieces you’ll want to keep in mind how they will be used. For example, the end tables should be close enough to the chairs that some one can put down a drink easily. Lighting should be placed in the areas of the room that lack daylight from windows or areas where reading or writing is likely to take place. Just think ‘function’.

Step 6.
Now the fun really begins. Start moving your accessories, table lamps, throws and pillows into the room but be very careful picking which things to bring back in and which things to pack away or get rid of. If an object is the wrong color for the room or has a completely different style to it, don’t bring it back, place it to the side (you can always find a spot for it in another room or store it away). Find suitable places for these items as you bring them in but don’t overdo it. This is called editing (you can do it, I know you can).
Note: There should be a number of items left out when you’re done with this procedure.

Kristin Wooding
room4improvement.ca room4improvement.ca
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